MMA Fighting - UFC 277 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Amanda Nunes' Dominance, Brandon Moreno's Nasty Finish

Episode Date: July 31, 2022

Amanda Nunes and Brandon Moreno left the American Airlines Center in Dallas with UFC gold around their waists.  Following Saturday’s UFC 277 event, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, José Youngs, Shaun Al-Shatti, and Jed Meshew react to Nunes’ dominant performance against a very gritty and tough Julianna Peña to reclaim her double-champ status, Moreno’s incredible finish of Kai Kara-France in the highly entertaining co-main event to win the interim flyweight title, the post-fight face off between Moreno and current UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo, the stoppage in the Sergei Pavlovich vs. Derrick Lewis heavyweight fight, Alexandre Pantoja and Magomed Ankalaev picking up statement wins to kick off the main card, and much more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Jose Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Jed K. Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose

to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody, we are back. Part two of our post-fight coverage following UFC 27 here

on the MMAfighting.com YouTube channel. Welcome to the program. I am Mike Heck back with you once again. We got a full crew with us. We got Sean Al Shadi. We got Mr. No Gray area. Jedmishu. I'm sure fiery hot takes are coming.

But we will begin things with the man. Our boots on the ground in the Dallas Metroplex. Mr. Jose Young's. Look at this camera angle. Look at this suit. Look at that hairstyle. Guy just crushed the game right now. Jose, your thoughts on... Say it again?

Yes. I don't think anyone else heard of say it again. You're crushing the game right now. Just crushing it. Absolutely crushing it. So your overall thoughts here. I know we don't have a lot of time with you, but Mandoninez, great performance. Brandon Moreno, great performance.

Main card delivered, some quick finishes, some dominant performances. Overall, thoughts on the card itself. It was good. fight. It was a good fight card. There's obviously some unfortunate endings. I think the Derek Lewis ending was a bummer. A lot of people thought that was the late, early stoppage. I don't really have an issue like everyone else on this site besides Eric Jackman do. I'm 50-50 because anytime a large human being his face down on the canvas with his hands at his side, I would assume they're pretty close to being unconscious at a heavyway fight. And then the injury to Anthony Smith,

I thought was a bummer because I had a lot of questions about Ancolaev and Anthony Smith. and it just felt like we were robbed of what was going to be a really good fight. But two pretty epic performances, two completely different performances. And the final two fights, Bernardo versus Kai Kar-Franos, is an incredibly competitive fight. Brandon Renner was obviously losing that last round until he decided to soccer kick Kai Kar-Francis floating rib into the stratosphere and reclaim the interim title.

And then Amanda Nunes, I know on paper, if you just look at the scorecards or whatever, it looks like an absolutely one-sided beatdown, which it was, but Julianina Paine was never out of it. She kept fighting the entire fight. So it was a close fight that one person dominated. I know that doesn't make any sense. It doesn't really make sense when I hear it.

But on paper, it looks like Amanda just put Julianna Paine through a wood chipper. If you saw Julianna Pena's face, you would assume she did go through a wood chipper. But Giuliana Pena is supremely tough. And, yeah, it was a close fight that one person dominated. Hey, it wasn't, it didn't look like Amanda Nunes was without welts and marks on her face as well when she showed up at that post-fight press conference. But did anything surprise you in that main event, Jose? Like I think a lot of us, there was like two sides of the fence. We were they going to see the same exact thing as the first fight or Nunes was just going to bolt her and do what a lot of people expected her to do the first time around.

Instead, we got five rounds. We got to see Amanda show some different styles. She comes out Southpaw. and had a lot of people like, whoa, this is different. And then Pena, just showing grit and toughness. What surprised you the most about that fight? Amanda Nunez coming out of Southfall. I mean, she put together a supremely, like,

a really perfect game plan. And even at the Post-Fa press conference, she says, like, she saw it in her face. As soon as she went Southpaw, that Juliana Paine had no idea what to do. So, shocked me. Can't imagine what Julianna Pena was going through when she, you know, was preparing for an orthodox

Amanda Nunes. And all of a sudden, Amanda Nunes has her lungs back, her feet back, and it's now fighting in Southpawah. that's got to be horrifying. But yeah, it was a perfect game plan and perfect performance. It was a good fight. Amanda Niz reclaims her belt, and I've always said this on a million times. What separates the great fighters from the talented fighters

are the ability to rise from being down, being low, like the Charles Olivares and the Glover's shares. Yes, being dominant like Habib or Anderson and this and that, or John Jones is great. But when you fall, can you get back up? And that's what Manny Niz did. I've said for a long time that she's the greatest female fighter of all the time. I don't know a lot of people agree with us.

Not everyone at the site, I think agrees with that, but I still put her number one pound for pound, and I still think she's the best female fighter of all time, and she proved it again today. Do you get a sense that there's any chance they just go back to this third fight? I think it really did, because Amanda was pretty beat up, Julian Payne was really beat up.

So I just think, let's see how they feel in six months. Then maybe they do it at the end of the year. Maybe they do the trilogy. I know Dana wants to go to Brazil next year, figure out I don't want to fight in Brazil. Charles Oliver beats Islam Machashev. I would imagine they wanted to put Charles, Amanda, and Figurado on the same card. Like, they wanted to, this past, I know the Phoenix card was originally targeted for Rio or South Powell,

and they wanted, like, Glover and Charles and Davidson on those cards. So I would imagine if the UFC goes to Brazil, maybe they throw all those guys on. But let's wait and see because neither woman looks like they were ready to get back in the camp anytime soon because they got a lot of cuts and bruises and banged up knees and what have you. And last thing, I want to get your take on Brandon Moreno's performance, just the fight in general with Kaikar, France, because this fight delivered. It was everything we thought it would be.

The scorecards were all over the place after two rounds. We had a 1919, and then each judge, the other two judges had a 2-0 each fighter. Your thoughts on Moreno's performance, just the main event in general, and how excited are you for Moreno Figurato 4 or Figurato-Marino 4? I know the champ goes first. I don't know if I'm pretty sure I'm frozen right now. Am I frozen? Because they just took the Wi-Rae.

They took the Wi-Fi away from us. So now I'm on the public Wi-Fi. You're good, Jose. Everything's still good. Okay. How about now? How are we doing now? Everyone's good.

You guys are great. I'm going to keep talking then. Anyway, Moreno, obviously, I'm going to be. you asked if I'm going to be excited for Moreno, Figurado, I'm going to be excited when Moreno fights Figurato for the seventh time, because that's the rate we're going at right now. These guys are just going to play hot potato with the UFC Flyway title. I was actually very, very pleased with how they handled each other

when Figurato entered the Octagon, and they did that, like, impromptu face off, and they were just absolutely respectful for one another. It wasn't expecting that. Wasn't expecting, you know, David's and Figretto with dyed eyebrows and a tiger on his shirt on fire to get in there, and just, you know, be the most respectful rival to a man that he's had a lot of bad things to say about.

So I was very pleased with that. I'm excited for that fight. Obviously, it sucks for Pantoja, because he's probably going to take another fight that he doesn't, shouldn't have to, because at this point, he beat Brandon Rano and Kaihka are friends, so he probably should have been fighting for the interim title to begin with. So sucks for him, but, yeah, I am so excited. These are very obviously the two best fly weights in the world. I know Brian Marendo thinks he won that third fight.

I don't know how you guys feel, but I can look. watch these guys fight a hundred times and I'm never going to be bored. It's one of those rare times where a fourth fight just makes sense. We got to draw. We had a submission win. We had a pretty narrow decision win for Figurato and I can't even imagine what we're going to get to the fourth fight. Jose, well done. Great job. On site as always. Safe travels home and get on out of there, man. Take a rest. Get a nap. Get some sleep. You deserve it. Thank you, my friend. Well done. As a little ago. There he is, Jose Young's, live from Dallas, Texas,

giving you the on-site reaction to UFC 277. Sean, let's begin with you, my man. Now the real party begins, Mike, heck. Let's do it. Now the real party begins. There we go. I'm at midnight. I'm floating steady.

I'm good. I don't know how you three AMers are doing it right now, but let's do it, fellas. Yeah. And it's 135 degrees in this room right now. And we're just battling through, Sean. We're just battling through. biggest takeaway from this main event because there is a lot you you could go either way the toughness just the performance but when that fight ended what was like the one thought that was just

consistent in your mind biggest takeaway from newness is victory over juliana pania biggest takeaway so that's an interesting way to start this right because to me i found this main event to be incredibly incredibly compelling i know the scorecards will tell you one thing but this was really the most tense blowout I can ever remember seeing, right? Because I would agree with the 50-44. If you want to give it a 50-43, I could certainly see the way you could do that too.

People who don't score that second round at 10-8, I don't know what you're doing at that point. Like, if that's not a 10-8, what do you have to do to somebody to get a 10-8? She knocked her down three different times, which was a record for any women or fight in the UFC in the history of the UFC. Like, no woman had ever gotten three knockdowns in a fight.

She did it in a round. Like, that's 10-8. Come on. But the whole time. Pena was in it, right? And it felt very much like it was edge of your seat type of moments constantly with Pena, the doggedness she came, she approached this fight with, she approaches every fight with, but just like the relentlessness that she brings to this and just she is going to keep trying and trying to win that fight, no matter what is going on, no matter how deep into it,

that could have been a 50 minute fight. You know in minute 49, she was still going to be throwing up Oma Plata's and arm bars and triangles and just trying to make something happen. I found all of that to be incredibly compelling theater. But in the end, we sort of land back in this very interesting status quo that we were at before last December, right? Like Amanda Nunes is the goat. We sort of knew that she was the goat this whole time. This only reaffirms it.

She has sort of, we've heard all week this stat of, you know, how bad the record is for champions who lose their belt and then to get an immediate rematch. I think it was like 10 and 2 or 11 and 2 or I'm sorry, 2 and 11 or 2 of 10. those two. It was just not a good record for champions to sort of run it back and try to get it back. She did the Matt Sarah GSP thing. She really relegated Juliana Peña to be her own Matt Sarah. She did it in dominant fashion. I think this ends up just being a blip on the radar when it comes to her legacy. And she's now back and sort of better than she ever has been, right? Like there was a lot of chances she took coming into this fight, changing teams, basically creating her own camp and sort of doing it all herself. And it worked out magically, man. Like she was in

there, she was had Juliana on ice skates for those first two rounds, just cracking her with that right hook. Anytime Juliana came charging in, she was getting demolished with those hooks. And then we've seen it throughout Amanda's reign. Once she realizes she can wrestle you and just outrestle the hell out of you, that's what she's going to do. And she's perfectly fine, just out wrestling the hell out of you. We saw it over and over again. She split Juliana wide open. I think at one point she had her in that front headlock situation on the ground. And she was like almost juicing Juliana's forehead.

Like all the blood just gushing out of it was nuts. So to me, I found this to be an incredibly impressive performance from one of the greatest

fighters we have ever seen. And it now leaves us in a very interesting spot where I know what we're going to get to it. But to me, I know people are talking about the Peña trilogy.

What do you do next with Noon is? This feels very easy and very obvious. And I don't know that there's a better answer or even another correct answer than you have to do Valentina Shafjanko 3 right now. There is no better options for either woman right now,

and it is one of those spots where who knows how much longer we have to do this fight, right? How many times have we seen super fights be lost over the course of MMA history? Because we waited too long and we took them for granted and we thought they would be there, and then all of a sudden they weren't. If this past year has shown us anything

with Amanda losing to Giuliana, and then Valentina very nearly losing to Talia Santos and maybe would have lost, had that headbut not happened, anything can happen. We've seen it over the past year. It has proved it to us. We need to take advantage of this moment right now to do that fight. That is a very important fight just for the history of the sport. These are the two preeminent greatest women of this era. They need to sort of settle whatever is going on between them. And Amanda seemed up for it. Dana White for like the first time and a long time seemed very much up for it. There's just not better options in either of their divisions right now. I know Valentina's maybe a little iffier, but money can do, can convince them. people to do, you know, various things. I think the UFC just needs to throw over the bag and we need to just book this fight because there is

we need to do it now, we can't lose it and there's really not a better option. A lot to unpack there. Jed, I'll go to you because as you posted right before this main event started, you posted the receipt of the first time you said that Giuliana Pena was going to go out there and beat Amanda Nunes

and win the title in December. You were right on. You posted it again. You had the suit and the top. on looking like a couple of Billy out there. Just looking fresh, dude. And you were correct. This time around, this is a different fight.

You said it would be a different fight. You felt this would be Amanda's night. But it wouldn't stun you if Giuliano went out there and did it again. This is going to be one of those fights where at the end of it, it was like, oh, obviously this is going to happen no matter how it played out if you listen to No Bet Spard. So what was your biggest takeaway? And do you agree with Sean? Do we just pull the trigger on this Nunezschevchenko three thing?

that more people are on board including Dana White than ever before apparently. I'm fine. I guess I'll start there. I'm fine if we pull the trigger on Noon at Shvchenko 3. I'm not like salivating for it, even though I think it's a great fight. I'll be really excited if it happens. But like there is some part of it whereas it is a much more interesting fight if Shevchenko isn't coming off a really tough contest.

Like, you know, some people, even Amanda Noon said, you know, she was going to lose that fight without the headbutt, which I'm not even 100% sure the headbutt's a real thing. Like she did headbutter, but also immediately after she had better. She kicked her in the friggin face, which also could have easily busted that orbital as well. Neither here nor there. If you want to make that fight, totally okay with it. It's great. I also think that you could, because Noon seems to still want to be doing things and

Chivchenko is going to hold onto the belt for infinity and beyond. I think you can do have Chivchenko do one more against Mononis. Fioro when she goes and beats Caitlin Chiquet again in a couple weeks or whatever the timeline is for that fight. And then let Noons come back and fight Ketland Vieira because that is a fight that. Ketland Vieira deserves a title shot. And so I would like Ketland Vieer to get a title shot that she deserves in that regard. But I'm never going to sneeze at the top two women in the world going hammering tongs. That's pretty fun.

As far as what the biggest takeaway is, it's a really good question. And I think the answer is just that Giuliano Pena is stupid. tough. And I'm not sure that she's like good at fighting, but she's great at fighting because she is stupidly tough. Like everything that Jose said and that Sean said is true. Like that was the most compelling ass kicking I may have ever watched. And it was competitive for being an absolute obliteration of another human being strictly

because Manorneus couldn't kill her. She literally could not hurt Julian Panio. She dropped her three, seven, 26 times. I don't even know. And Panger just got right up. And the commentary, which was on a whole different one tonight.

Oh, they were just like, oh, well, Noons has the Charles Olivera 10 standing 10 count, which was obviously insane. It was like Nunes

didn't want to follow Pena to the floor. She's like, why would she follow her to the floor? She's tuning her up on the feet. and she just kept doing it. And Paina just kept getting up and being okay. Like she would get up and she would shake her legs out a little bit and then be totally fine.

And then charge forward with some of the worst combinations I've ever seen in high-level mixed martial arts. Do you're not on Twitter. Go get on Twitter. There are plenty of gifts out there. We're talking some really, really like day one cardio kickboxing combinations that Painter throws. And they start, they worked in stage. largely because she just didn't care that she was getting blasted with counter shots

and if you can just run through all if you were just an absolute tank it kind of doesn't matter because eventually you get to hit them one time and then that hurts and like you saw that noon still got uncomfortable at stages like she clearly won every round of that fight and every minute of the fight

there were times when she was uncomfortable and she would disengage and she went to the wrestling like Sean said because it was safer and it realistically was because she could not finish Pena on the feet, but she knew that Pena was much less dangerous throwing up. I know that D.C. and Rogan were like super in on the guard work, and I'm not saying that Pena wasn't trying, but like none of those triangles were close.

That one arm bar was like a good attempt. But other than that, the rest of it was all, I don't know, like it wasn't there. So I think the answer for me is the biggest takeaway is, holy cow Juliania Pena just is unbelievably tough and it like that is a thing that she still has

and so if they do run this fight back in the future like I'll still pick Nunes to win because I picked her to win this time but if Pena can can learn like how to actually strike like it becomes way more compelling of a fight because like that fight

was over instantaneously right as soon as as Nunes came out in South Paul Fania had no, clearly had never drilled against it and so had nothing to offer that. And so now that, you know, if she actually puts tools to work, her style is just really difficult for Noons in a lot of ways, even after the ass kicking tunes delivered to her today.

Yeah. I mean, we basically covered everything that fight had to offer in both of your responses. I do want to say one thing about the, we talked about the commentary during the press conference thing. was really bad. But I do want to say this. John Anick is maybe the most patient play-by-play guy in the universe.

And two, I think the MVP of the whole broadcast, because of also having patience, was Dean Thomas. Because at one point, I think it was, I think Daniel Cormier actually asked him the question, why is Amanda Nunes scared to grapple with Julianna Pena? He, in fact, did. And you can tell, yeah, and you can tell Dean Thomas, like, on a non-professial unprofessional ESPN setting would have been like, what in the blue hell are you talking about? But it's like, well, you know, Daniel, I don't think it's just scared and then gave like a really

appropriate response, but you knew when he hit that Mew button. She's bashing their brains in on the knee. Well, she's dropped her three times. So why would you go to the ground? She's going to drop her again, because Pena is going to charge in with their hands down and just walk right into a counter-right hand. she did it all fight long. The last thing I want to say about this, and I'll go to you, Sean,

because I felt one way about Nunes and how much longer she had in the sport heading into the December fight, and I feel much differently now. Like heading into that first Giuliana Pania fight, I'm like, we might have like two, maybe three more fights out of Amanda. But coming out of this wind,

hearing the things that she was saying, I feel like we got longer, with her. I feel like she does like indeed like have that hunger. I think putting that own that whole team together going through that camp, the group of people around her, I think she truly is reinvigorated. Like this wasn't a cliche. This is like the real deal thing. Has your thoughts changed? Like I know you said like this is not a back pocket kind of thing with Valentina. Like we got to strike well the iron's hot. But is there a part of you that feels like, you know, the two to three fights maybe, maybe we're looking at five to six now? Maybe that desire to keep going on is, is, is, is, you know, the two to three fights.

now, maybe that desire to keep going on is far different now than maybe what you thought at the end of last year? I mean, it's an interesting question, right? Because I think in a strange way, this whole Giuliana Pena saga for Amanda has sort of extended her lifespan in MMA to a certain degree because she, you could tell that she was sort of kind of getting over it, getting past it a little bit of like what else is left for me. I've sort of conquered all the goals and obstacles ahead of me that I could have done at this point. And then she loses last December and all of a sudden, now she, you know, she camp changes. She's remotivated.

She's seeing someone else walk around with her belt. She wants to prove the world that was a fluke. There's a bunch of elements that go into it. But I think that alone maybe got a few more fights, future fights for us for Men of Nunes. But I will say, I mean, I don't know that we have five or six more for Manna Nunes. She's still 34 years old. She's been in this game a long, long time. She's had a lot of fights in the UFC.

She's had a lot of fights at the highest levels in the UFC. I would be stunned if we get more than another two or three. if I'm bare real. I mean, she's at a point where her legacy is very, very secure.

She's probably financially, very comfortable. And she knows she's, she's raising a family. She's, you know, her daughter

and just a whole sort of great situation going down there in Florida. I think there's probably only a few fights left that we get with her and then maybe she rides off into the sunset,

which again is why to me, it feels very important that we get this Valentina Shavchenko trilogy fight because when you look at, when you look back 20 years from now at this era of women's MMA, just MMA,

just MMA period. Two women will stand above everybody else by far. And it's just the gap between them and everybody else. It's just so not even like close to being a thing, right? Like it's Amanda and Valentina. And I know Amanda's up too O, but the way that second fight went is very controversial. A lot of people still maintain Valentina won that.

I think Jed is probably one of them on this very program right now. And the first fight. Feels like we need some resolution to it. Like I think just historically that is important. Even this weekend, fellas, when we're about to submit our new MMA fighting rankings ballots for next week's update in the rankings,

I think there's a legitimate debate that's going to be happening about who's the best female pound for pound fighter in the world considering the last two performances we just saw from each of them. This might have been Amanda's best and we might have just seen Valentina at or worst. So it feels like something that is unresolved and needs to be resolved.

And I'm here for it. And I feel like, again, you can't mess around with this type of stuff. We have seen it so many different times. We were talking about it in the private Slack room on MMA fighting of all the various super fights that we just lost over the years because we waited too long and we just assumed

they were going to be there. And I just don't want this one to become one of those because it almost happened. It almost happened two different times over the past year. Yeah, and we can't end the sort of rivalry between these two on that second fight because

while controversial is one word you can use, not fun to watch would be another sort of phrasing. It was just not the most compelling 25 minutes ever. seen controversial is debatable not fun to watch is irrefutable that's also probably generous because it was it was pretty bad it was worse than not good uh my my fandom for valentin of shivchenko won't allow me to say that it was bad but not fun sure yeah if that fight happened in ACA maybe the promoter comes in and stops up over the fifth round no it wasn't that bad i'm just throwing

that out there is a btl question but go ahead also just to address Sean's thing because you guys are going to put your rankings and for all of you because I'm sure someone's going to put Amanda at the top and it's fine this guy is going to do it it's fine you do whatever you want I'll say the same thing that if I if I appreciate your go ahead I needed it so I very much am appreciative of giving if I was a reporter and when Amanda was asked about Valentina tweeting a kind of dumb thing or whatever and she was like well Valentina almost lost her last fight yeah that's cool You actually did lose your last fight

So I don't really know how you're talking shit Like you actually lost she just almost did but then didn't So like Amanda did lose valetina didn't It's still too old my man In the series between them One person has lost and the other hasn't Okay they're not at the same weight class It was a lifetime ago

I don't think Valentina lost the second fight And the first fight was only three rounds and Noons was getting her ass kicked in round three. But again, you could do whatever you want. This is rankings are subjective. We can table this for the next rankings. Yeah, I was going to say. You can do whatever you want.

Rankings are subjective. I just think you're insane. Listen, here's a spoiler for the ranking show listeners. Here's a little behind the scenes. We're going to say, yeah, we'll go for about an hour. We're looking at a, we're going to be sniff at two hours on this bad boy. This debate is going to be a biggie. I got a feeling.

So let's move on. Let's move on to other things. Let's move on to Brandon Moreno, Sean, because you are in the building in Phoenix when he became the champion of the world, I believe you were there. And there's one of those moments where it's a FOMO moment for me. I really was like, damn it,

like I would have loved to have been there, been a part of that. But then he goes and fights Kai Kar, France tonight. Scorecards were all over the place after two rounds. It was 1-1-200-2-0 for each fighter. It was all over. the place. So I've had this gone five rounds, we could have been, be having a whole different conversation right now. But Brandon Moreo was like, nope, I'm going to land this gnarly kick to the body,

shut Kai Karfranz down, went in there, finished hokey pokey herb, turned himself around and stop the fight. And Brandon Moreno is the interim flyway champion of the world. Your thoughts on the fight, Moreno's performance, and then we'll get into the figgy stuff after. I just real quick I'm a hijack your question and throw it back to you guys like we saw two rib roasters tonight Drew Dober

and the Brinna one kick and the the nasty nasty hook if you had to take one of those which are you taking because I I guess maybe Dover but like it's over it's not close for me

yeah look I don't get me wrong the Moreno kick was sick one real time I thought he kicked him in the nuts and I thought like I thought I'm not even because like the view I had or whatever was watching because I was live

logging out. I thought he kicked him low. And then Herb, because it's Herb, like, didn't see it and was going to let a nutshot actually lead to an interim title win. And I was like, losing my mom. I was like, oh, my goodness. And then the booth was so confident. I was like, oh, that must have actually hit clean. But it was the cleanest. Super clean.

Unbelievable. Yeah. Body kicks rule, but body, body punches are just way better. And Dovers was way, way better. Also, not to totally derail us, but it's been a lot cooler of Noons had just hit Paine and the body a bunch. Because apparently you can't crack her chin. It is unbreakable, but nobody takes a shot to the liver and survives it as two people on this card proved evidence. Yeah, those it was, I love a good body shot.

Like, that's one of my favorite things in all of fight sports, boxing, kickboxing, MMA, regardless. And so to get two of them on a night like this, like, oh, Bass Routon was just. loving life watching this. But no, to go back to your question, man, my takeaway from all of this is that the flyweight division is absolutely on fire. Like the flyweight division might be one of the most fun divisions in the entire sport right now. And this isn't a new development, right? Like this is something that has been ongoing.

All three legs of the trilogy that we got between Brandon Moreno and DeVis de Vicerado were utterly tremendous. So this is not a new thing. But we have just the way that these guys are going out consistently now and performing. I mean, we even saw it like a week or two of. go with Matt Chanel just randomly setting the world on fire in that in that fight is just this these fly weights are out of control right now and it's so fun to see brandon moreno is he's just a delight man like how can you how can you hate this guy like how can anybody possibly hate this

guy he is the most delightful man that we might have in the history of this sport like it's he's coming into this press conference eating atella and just like giggling it up like he's he's having the time of his life it's it's tremendous stuff and you're right I mean the the the knock out like melting Kai Kar, France, the way he did, that's like one of those nightmare fuel side of like knockouts. Like you just see that

and your own body hurts watching that. It was interesting to see sort of in the lead-up what was going to be made out of the move to Glory. M.M.A. right, to work under James Krause. Whatever those guys are doing,

it's clearly working. I love the state of this division. I really enjoyed, too, the sort of post-fight interaction that him and Devis and Figurato had. I know Dana White maybe didn't love it, which is weird to me because I thought that like that genuine show of just like immense respect between two guys who have really like been in the cage together for like an hour together, right? Like that was a lot of fun to me. And that sort of set

the table for what this is going to be because the tetrology fight of that, which is what a fourth fight is. It's not a quadriloat tetrology. That's going to be sensational. And like I can't wait for especially if they can do it in Brazil, like go to Devisons Houghton court. That that's going to be just a crazy scene. And then you add in a man who I'm sure we'll talk about later, Alejander Pantoja coming in here, who was, by the way, 3 and O over these co-main inventors. And he just looked like a bona fide wrecking machine in there in like 91 seconds over Alex Perez. The vibes at 125 right now are just immaculate. And I am thinking the blood gods every time we have one of these fight cards that this division still exists,

because the fact that it almost didn't is ridiculous. And it's just, it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. The Figgie thing was really interesting. It was an emotional roller coaster because at first I'm like, don't do this. It's just going to be horrible. It's going to be so hoodoo-ish. And I'm going to hate every second of it.

And then he comes in and he walks in with the shades on and the belts. And I love the heel move. And I'm just sitting there. I'm like, oh my God, Figgie's going to do something stupid. He's going to push him. And then Barano's just like being a dad and trying to set the good example. and Figgy's like, all right, man.

And it like hugs them. But then like in the back of my mind, I'm still thinking that we're in the barbershop with Marty Genetti and Sean Michaels and he's just got to like trip them or tick them or something bad was going to happen. But luckily it didn't happen. So I got to take a nice deep breath.

What, like, let's be clear because I'm sure that they're ghost watching this right now who are like, you guys are idiots. Because I agree we talked about it in the Slack channel. It was like, honestly, maybe the actually, maybe the actual single most heartwarming moment in UFC history. Like genuine, great moment. Loved every minute of it.

I also absolutely understand why Dana White wasn't super stoked on it. Because for as much as we like this and think, this is great. And Casey, I heard you say in the press conference thing that like, you can, like, look, you don't have to promote fights of bad blood. No. This won't sell a pay-per-view. not a single human beings be like these two dudes are friends

I want to watch them fist fight Oh yeah If no that's not doing shit And you You know what else wouldn't You know what else wouldn't have done shit If they would have gotten a push in a pushy match Like none of it was going to sell a single more pay-review

This would have because the UFC at least knows how to promote that It's the only way they know to promote fights But they can put a video package together It's like these two hate each other Four times let's go and like it will drop slightly more interest i'm not talking in the hundreds of thousands but like fig and smalls you go over there and you know kill brandon merino's dog and they can get it on film and like it's not going to sell a single more i would i would absolutely sell more you shouldn't do

that that's horrible and you're a bad person for suggesting it's john but it would absolutely so mike mike you i you just brought it up i didn't bring up killing puppies that's a shodd off shoddy thing They're not, Mike, I don't watch pro wrestling, like Mike, I do not watch pro wrestling, but I know enough to know that in the thing you were saying was some sort of a promo build with Genetti or Sean Michaels or whatever, you know why they didn't do the that with them being like, hey, we're buddies because nobody gives you shit.

And so like I get it. I'm not saying he should have. I'm not saying they should fabricate things. But like, we don't have to bury our heads in the sand and pretend like, oh yeah, this is what. fighting can be. People are going to love this. Like, yeah, that was just a cool moment. And, like, I get why the promoter was like, eh, whatever. Like, he's, he's not into it. That's fine. Like, but we don't have to pretend like this is, this is like, this is how fighting should work.

I'm not, I'm not sure what your argument is right now, because you enjoyed it too. Like, what is, I know, I didn't enjoy it right now. My position is that it's, I can enjoy the thing and not be like, oh, I don't know why Dana White didn't like this. Like, I very clearly understand why I didn't like this and think that to an extent he has a point, but I don't, you know, it's whatever. Like, I think it's fair for him to be like, eh. No, yeah, obviously. I agree.

Okay, then we're good. I don't know what happens. What are we talking about? I don't know. It's also almost four. It's 3.30. So maybe I'm a little worked up over nothing. Who can say?

I have a lot. of energy drink pulsing through me right now. I can sense that. I can see that. Last thing on this, I'll go to you because we know where this is going, right? Like, we know where this is going.

Allie pants. Best flyweight in the world, baby? Well, I mean, let's not get crazy. What was your biggest takeaway from the title fight? Outside of fly weights and unders, always cash. Always cash, baby. Fly weights and unders never don't cash. Brandon Marino is really damn good dude

I thought there was a chance that he was the best flyweight in the world because I don't remember I haven't rewatched the Morano Figgie fight the last one recently but I don't I remember at the time thinking that I thought Figgie edged it out but being like it's competitive could go either way but yeah he's he's just still getting better like he did a lot of things in a style matchup

that could have been tricky especially with how good Kai Kar-France was at not allowing Marino to get his grappling off. And then to come back, like, I don't think, I think we're not going to talk about it because of how everything else happened. But like, that finish is incredible. Not because of the fact that he kicked him in the body. But he was kind of getting tuned up in that round. Like he, it felt like momentum had shifted. Like Carver Francis was easily back to him.

By far, he'd easily, the judges were all over the place. I don't know what the hell they were smoking. but like clearly marino sure won the first two one judge did not give him either of those rounds but like the third round he was clearly losing and losing badly not like in a not almost getting finished badly but like oh there there's a snowball rolling downhill in the same way he had turned the tide on car france in their first fight like it it felt like kkf had woken up and was starting to really get things going that uh right hand was just tethered to marino's face and there's out of nowhere he was like nah bro we're done and that's like that is incredibly impressive to engineer a mid round

comeback by just adjusting and saying okay he's he is circling away as soon as i start to engage i have to follow him and trail with the kick because he is going to be so far out that i can't go one two punch because he's just running away and he did it and then boom done so yeah marina's sick good and probably the best flyweight in the world because Davis and Figuero looks like he's a lightweight at this point in time. I don't know what that dude's been eating, but he's been eating well.

It might have just been a puffy sweater, you know? I don't know, man. Him standing back there with Volcanovsky who is not a small featherweight. He looks bigger than Volk. That was wild. And Volk's got designs on moving to lightweight and Figgies supposedly

a 125er. I don't know how that dude makes the wait. Truly do not know, but good on him. There we go. So we'll, we know what's going to happen. We'll see when that fight happens. But congratulations to James Krauss,

getting his first champion at Glory MMA. So good on him. And everybody seems to be happy about that, except apparently Megan Anderson, who had some things to say on Twitter earlier today, hashtag shots fired. Speaking of that, let's go to, before we go to the peeps,

let's go to the most contentious thing that happened on this card. It happened in the featured bout in the heavyweight division. Texas's hero, their own. Derek Lewis takes on Sergei Pavlovich. This fight is going exactly the way we thought it would. They're throwing hammer and tongs. Pavlovich is getting the best of Derek Lewis. Starting to hurt him a little bit.

Derek's trying to fire back. Pavlovich hits him. Lewis goes down. It looks aesthetically bad. Big Dan, Tan Dan, jump. stops the fight and Derek Lewis hops right up like he's popping out of a jack in the box, ready to go, fight is stopped, he's pissed, everybody else is pissed for the most part. And Pavlovich picks up the biggest win of his career, gets no bonus at all, despite

finishing Derek Lewis in less than a minute. And this has led to a little bit of a debate here. Was this an early stoppage? Was it a good stoppage? Was it a poor stoppage? So, Sean, we've had several hours now to reflect on this. how did you feel as it happened? Do you still concur with how you felt as it happened?

How do we feel about this? Okay, so in the moment, I felt like it was terrible. I said it on Twitter, I said it on our Slackroom. I felt like it was an awful, awful stoppage in the moment. Having had time to reflect and sort of see various angles and just sort of watch it over and over again, I still don't like it and I still wish Tandan would have waited a little bit longer. I still maintain that it's a bad stoppage and an early stoppage,

but I can obviously understand sort of the decision making that he had in the moment. Being a referee is very hard. It's a very hard job. It's incredibly challenging. You're making split-second decisions in a matter of like a blink of an eye, and all of us on the couch are getting to watch this on replay, and we have no skin in the game, and we get to say whatever we want,

and you just kind of have to sit there and take it. It's a tough job. That being said, it's the job you choose to do. Like, that's sort of what comes with it. This is Derek Lewis. this is who he is, this is what he does. He's won fights that he's seemingly been in more trouble than he was in tonight. And that's sort of just where I land with it, where like I get it.

I understand the decision making because Derek Lewis for a moment was sort of face down on the mat. It looked pretty rough. But the fact that he popped up back instantly. And again, just with his history, you almost have to like know the fighter that you're dealing with, right? Like this is something that Derek Lewis sort of does a lot. He plays, I don't know that he was playing possum, but he has played possum in the past, but also like just he has insane recoverability. And in a situation like this,

I would not have minded to see this go another second or two just to get some sort of definitive answer because what ultimately happens and why this sort of sucks is that it does a disservice to Derek, but it also does a disservice to Sergey Pablage, who had easily the best win of his entire career, a win that should have been basically career changing, right? You're knocking out the UFC's all-time knockout king

in like 55 seconds or whatever it was. And instead of reveling in that moment, he has to then answer immediate questions from Joe Rogan about the stoppage, go into his post-fight interviews with the media and answer questions about the stoppage. He, like you mentioned Mike, which I think speaks volumes, he didn't even get a post-fight bonus

on a UFC pay-per-view out that he knocked out Derek Lewis in less than a minute. I feel like that speaks volumes. The fact that that happens, if that's a clearer, cleaner knockout and just gets an extra couple seconds, he's probably getting an extra 50 K2. So it just does a disservice to everybody when this type of situation happens. It's a tough, tough spot and especially one like this where, again,

Derek Lewis was sort of defaced down on the mat. That looked like a bad spot. You kind of just got to, again, it's Derek Lewis. I know I keep defaulting to that, but this is Derek Lewis. He has incredible recoverability. You got to give that guy the benefit of the doubt and at worst, let him eat a couple more shots if that's going to be what it takes to make it more definitive. So I land sort of where I started.

I don't like it. I'm not maybe as vehement against it as I was initially, but still I felt like it was a bad stoppage. The aesthetics are bad. The stoppage was also bad. And, Jen, I'll go to you. A little trivia question here. Last four fights, Derek Lewis is one and three.

Got the win. Mark Smith was the referee when he knocked out Chris Dachas. The referee in all three of his stoppage losses, Dan Mergaliata. all three of them. Cyril gone, Tai Tuvasa, Sergei Pavlovich, Tandan and Derek Lewis.

There's just no, the juju between these two are not good. And I actually went back at a certain point during the delay and rewatched the Tai Tuivasa fight. Taitoivasa in that first round was in way more trouble, way more trouble that Derek Lewis was in that fight. I know he didn't go face down, but Derek Lewis was clubbing that man.

And he could have stopped that fight. and he let it go. Ty gets to the second round ends up knocking out Derek Lewis and now Ty is maybe a win away from fighting for an interim title. But that's sad. Just Big Dan,

stopping Derek Lewis fights, last three, all these three stoppage losses, all were Dan Mergley out of refs, left fights. I don't know if that means anything in the lungs. Yeah. They're also in Texas.

So really, Derek should stop fighting in Texas and especially when Dan, The Adis's referee. I don't care. I think this is, I think this is one of those situations where the stoppage is,

how do I phrase this? The stoppage is fine. I wish it would have gone on for two more punches, right? Like it's, I under, if you faceplant, you faceplant,

dude, and I'm, I'm never going to be like super, ah, you shouldn't do, you shouldn't step in because like, you faceplant. there's a lot of reason for a referee to believe that you have gone unconscious and thus do not need to be punched in the head anymore.

And that's how it works. But I am largely on the side of, I sort of want every fight to go two punches more. Now that's not 12 punches more. But like, I just, I don't think that those two punches are the ones that are the career changers for fighters. I think it's the hours and hours of sparring in the round or the take. taking a prolonged beating over a 25 minute fight, not a cough and nail hit him. I think the optics there are just bad essentially. So I'm always pro.

Let it fight it out. Let's be 100% definitive on where we are here. But he face planted. And so I would have liked to see it go. If it were me, I feel like I would have allowed it to go one or two more punches. But I don't have any issues with Marguer's stepping. in and stopping that fight, there's a lot of reason for him to have done so. I will say to put it a lot of Derek close us, go ahead.

To put it one way, like Brock Lesnar would have lost to Shane Carwin 10 times over if he had Dan Mergley out his quick trigger that he had tonight. Like that's all it was, right? Like we've seen legendary comebacks. And almost every legendary comeback in MMA history, UFC history, there is a moment where things appear to be over or almost over on the verge of being over. and it felt like that was maybe where we were at. That's all.

Yeah. I get why people aren't stoked on it. It's just, I think that this is just sort of, this is baked into how the sport works. They're going to occasionally have one of these. This is, I would not call this a bad stoppage. I do think it's a little early, but I don't think it's bad. I just find it to be a bummer for Sergei.

Because, again, this is sort of the narrative. This is what we're talking about when we should be talking about. I don't care what he cares about. I don't think that dude cares about anything. That dude is an ice cold killer. That's who cares to? But that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying in general,

the conversation around Syria Pavl, which would be much more excited had this gone an extra second or so. That's it. I will also say, I don't think. Matchmaking for his next fight would be a little different, I think. I agree. It's just been like a clean stoppage.

I think he'd be moving up a little bit. And now he might, and now he might be in Romanov territory, if Ramanov goes out there and just bolts marching in Taibora. I mean, it could be that. Like, it could be that instead of looking at Tommy Aspidol when he's ready to come back or the loser of Ty would you have us Seril Gunn? Yeah.

Mike, heck, you're pretty good at this matchmaking thing. You should maybe do a show about it. I like that call. I mean, I mean, come on. I will also say, I actually don't think maybe just because of how the UFC does stuff with name value. if that's a clean K.O. Or if that is, if he gets two follow-up punches,

I'm still not sure that gets a performance bonus because I don't know, like, you're going to take one away from Dover or Pantosia? I'm not. I could see Dana White, and I can see the argument, but like, I think those two dudes just locked it in

because those were, as soon as the Pintoja fight happened, I was like, oh, yeah, that's it. Those are the two performances. So I'm not sure he lost. We've seen the UFC give more than, you know, the usual too so you never know did did did did did get the crypto bonus he had to have right

i don't think we get we don't think we find that out till like tomorrow or monday oh i thought we got this right yeah i don't think we find out i don't think we find out the same night i think maybe the first time we did but the last one we didn't find out to like a couple days after but um also by the time we find out they've already lost like 10 of value yeah derrick lewis is probably going to get one i mean there's just almost certainly it's gonna be more than Marino Lewis and I assume Noons. Yeah, maybe.

They're locked in. The only I'm trying to think of who else people like on the card. Noons is probably the answer. Yeah, and Moreno. Yeah, those are the three. Good win for Pintoj, like you said. He'll probably fight Kikar France next, unless he just wants to wait.

And we don't know if Dana wants to, you know how Dana feels about waiters. And then Magamette Angolaif. Do you feel? Do match, no. I mean, that just be a back. We already saw that one and it was awesome. I know.

Oh, they're all awesome. 125 rules. That's what I'm saying. Flyweight is so good right now. I love it. That was like one of those fights where I was like, all right, these guys are fighting. And as the fights going on, everyone's saying this is awesome. But Masschnell fans are like, Matt, no.

Don't do what you're doing. And then he gets, then he gets bolted. But I would watch that again. That's like every matchnell fight, to be honest. That is really. That's how that man works. I love for it. And, yeah.

And Jed, you probably feel vindicated with Magamette Ankleis performance. I mean, again, again, kind of mired with a little bit of weirdness due to the injury. But it turns out there's no fracture, according to Dana White at the press conference. I'm skeptical that that's true. Like, I don't know what else would have made him react like that. Because he seemed to be very confident. And I trust Anthony Smith to know his body well enough to know what. I mean, something can be wrong without it being a fracture.

There could still be something going on there. We'll see. I feel like there is, but we'll find out. Yeah, the first thing that he said when he got to the corner was, I broke my ankle. That was the first thing. And then when the fight was over, he told the broadcast that he broke his leg. But Magamaiqalive is a monster.

And Anthony Smith put on a bunch of weight for this fight, and Ankelaif looked like a freaking heavyweight compared to him. It was, that's a big four. Weren't you listening? Weren't you listening to the commentary? Uncle Alves very thin. He's a thin man. A tremendous commentary.

Anthony Smith was for the real title belt. God, yeah. Joe Rogan set quite the pace with that comments. Right out of the gate. Right on the gate. I don't want to derail us, but just like, can you imagine if like you're a new fan who this is your first UFC experience

and 10 minutes into the broadcast, what you know about the Flyweight Division is that the actual champion is a fake, champion who didn't actually win his last fight. And the fight tonight is for the real title. The one he has is a Fugazi title. Like, that's actually your knowledge of the Flyweight Division if you're watching this for the first time ever.

That's wild to me. That's like Joe Roe is the most known, like Joe Roe was the most publicly known UFC sort of voice in the world, right? Like, I think a lot of people would look at him as an expert and believe the things he says. That comes with a certain level of responsibility, man. And I'm DeVis and Figaro at home watching that. Like, I'm furious watching that. But again, whatever.

Joe Rogan responsibility, there are a lot of people who would like to have that conversation with them too. It's just not. Also, I think it's pretty fitting. The UFC has historically trashed this division. So it's pretty real to just be like, hey, new fans, join in our hatred of everything at 125 for some unknown reason. The problem with that is, though, is that actual people listen, right?

Because I tweeted out something like sort of criticizing that. And then 90% of the results of the replies were basically people parroting now what Joe Rogan said about Devis deodor, you know, he's not the real chant because he didn't take this fight. And it's like, bro, he was injured. He won the belt like six months ago. Don't get injured. Don't get injured. Yeah. Like what are we talking about?

He actually won the belt in the real fight that happened and that had a real result that wasn't even super controversial. Like it was a close fight. But you look at M. decisions like 17 out of like 25 people voted for him and the fan vote is only like 35% in favor moreno like it was a pretty decisive close win and now we're just delegitimizing him because the dude had the gall to to complain that he wasn't getting paid enough that Dana the same amount that like Dana gives a knelk boy for his birthday like this is less let's be he made less let's be real that's what I'm saying like he made significantly less than the knelt boy cash wad so like

Look, I'm never going to be pro Joe. Joe is the reason that Max Holloway is the greatest featherweight of all time to many people, and it will never not make me the maddest person online. So, like, I get what you're saying. Oh, man. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter.

It's just $39.99. How could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners?

Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Let's go to the peeps. I'm sure they have other things they want to talk about besides Joe Rogan. Big win for, nice win for Alex Maroto. Casey's got some really lavish-looking hair right now. He's just crashing it. Hamdi Abduahab

first Egyptian fighter to get a UFC win that was a double shot double shot twin shons wow twin jeds that's just so weird Hamdi wrestled in the Olympics in 98 kilograms which is like about

215 I think he's put on some weight since the Olympics is what I'm here this guy could be a dope ass light heavyweight prospect, but instead he's, he's a heavyweight who's going to be around. I love that. I don't even want to like make light of that.

That was like a genuinely cool sort of moment and like, just genuinely cool like, great performance sort of accomplishment for the region because Arabic MMA has sort of been on the rise for a long time now and not a lot of people talk about it. And for to become the first Egyptian fighter to fight in the UFC, but also like the first Egyptian fighter to win in the UFC. That's super cool. And for me, like, I'm my whole family's Kuwaiti. Like, I got the most Arabic name imaginable.

Like, I thought, I thought that was a very, very cool moment. It is. I just want to see him at 205 because that 2.5 is a wasteland of talent. And he, like, has the bones to do something there. But here's a, and here's it's interesting about him, too. You say this all the time, Jed. Athleticism and MMA is a cheat code. And that guy, even though he put on a couple LBs, I mean, he ain't looking.

And he ain't looking out of shape. He's looking pretty ripped at that way. And he's an athlete, dude. Yeah. On 12 days notice, 12 days notice, the dude is an athlete. And he's only going to get better, which I'm very curious. That's a guy we'll be keeping our eye on. Dracar close, just being a pest, beaten Rapha Garcia, just in his face the whole time.

Michael Morales is a stud prospect at 170. Props to Adam Fuggett, excuse me, for getting in there. and have it a good fight. We'll get it about it. Fuck it. So that was a fun social media watch, by the way. So many fugit jokes. I want to stay in the UFC forever.

Just for that. I'm so ashamed of myself, but I just did that. I know. I know. Great performance. A performance that is going to be forgotten through all this. Nikolai Negamiriano looked sensational tonight. He looked really good.

Strong performance. but just kind of overshadowed about everything that else that happened. And Orion Kosi gets his first UFC win against Blood Diamond. Can we matchmake Blood Diamond a little better for the love of God? Why are we putting him in there with wrestlers? I don't understand. But that's neither here nor there. Casey, what are the peep saying right now?

Drew Dober. The best damn baker in all of MMA just coming in here and doing tremendous things once again. That man makes a really mean donut and a really mean strike. very short-cooked cookie if you haven't already. Yeah. And by the way, the reason he wins, the reason he wins the body shot battle, go back and watch the replay of Alves when he stands up and tries to hug Drew Dover after, you could just see the pain in his face as he's trying to like extend to hug him.

Like the pain was not just in that one moment that shut his body down. Like it extended on for minutes after. And he was in a while. KKF stumbled backwards and collapsed. and Hover just... He collapsed like a building demolition just on top of himself. Like he was done.

It was awesome. I do have to say that, Raphael Alves is like appointment viewing for me forever. That dude is awesome. That guy could lose 10 fights and I don't want him to get cut from the UFC. That was, that guy is entertainment personified. Yeah.

Sick head movement too. Like, which was dope because that's why like, it's why Dover went to the body because he couldn't hit him in the head. Then punch his guts out. It was awesome. That fight ruled. I also, I want to add that I do, uh, I was on the same train of thought with, uh, J.

I was late. Can't remember everyone's name here. Jedd. I thought, I did think it was a nutshot that took, that took kind of. Oh, 100%. I was. And because it was herb, not because, that because I thought it was nuts. I was like, oh.

This is. Absolutely possible. The herb just misses that. And there we have a T. And the hokey-pokey dance, I was like, oh, he, he wasn't, yeah, I think her, when he looked at the replay, he's like, oh, thank God. I, I did because I was sitting there like, oh, man, this is bad. All right, do the questions. What have we got here?

We'll take a few. Take a few. It's been, uh, yeah. It's been a day. Um, while we wait, Jed. Yeah, let's talk about him. All right. rules.

He got shot out like a cannon. Dude. I didn't see that coming. He was all about the business. Walking down shirtless like just ready to go. Like he came in Ted, he, look,

I'm not here to talk a lot of shit about Anthony Smith, even though I've talked a lot of shit about Anthony Smith over my entire MMA media career. But when you come in and you say, I'm going to bring the fight to a dude and yada, yada, yada. And then you don't. You just kind of look like an ass.

And you know who didn't do that? Allie Pants. He said he was coming out to make a statement and he made a friggin statement. He literally ran out. He literally ran out. Shirt off. Yeah.

Shirtless ran out here. Let's go. I don't want to wait another minute so I can blow the doors off this dude. And as soon as the. Bell right. Out of a cannon. Just blew, blew him up.

And the promo and the mic too. Like the whole package. The whole package. Even at the press covers, he had a great line about like, calling these dudes his sons. That was like his only question of the press conference and he got a laugh at him. He was ready.

He was ready. Hook this division up to my veins. He had the best top to bottom performance of the whole weekend and like that dude just rules. Like he's been incredibly fun to watch. And I think he's like, I think he's now really ascending and just awesome. So everything about that fight was dope.

Because Alex Perez is good. This dude in his last fight was a title challenge. Like he's a good fighter and he was not a good fighter. Pantoja ran through him much, much more dominant than Figgi did. Like, ooh. Oh, man. That was a super smart strategy. Really smart because Alex is usually, uh,

Alex likes to set the toe in early himself and he just did not give him a chance to even breathe. It was amazing. The moment the fight started, literally the second the fight started, he was on him. It was, it was over. It was what? And that crank, that, that, that just squeeze. that he put it on Perez's face. Just a neck breaker.

Like, not a joke, just a neck breaker. Dude, and, uh, that killed me a freaking Rogan because saying,

you can go unconscious from that. No, that's just, that's just pain. Like, that, that, that, that's a vision of,

cause, but, yeah, I guess, but all that was, was just like, I'm going to squeeze your face. That's all that joke was.

It's so awesome. Oh, what a, what a bet. Great performance. And he beat up my boy, Manel Cape, and I still like him.

I still like him. My pants rules. Yeah, hands are awesome. All right. We've done. Geez. All right. We're not done.

We haven't done. Oh, wait, we haven't done this. Are we done? Let's talk about cheating. Ooh, always cheat. Is it me or did Pena grab the inside of Nunes's glove

multiple times right in front of the rough? Yeah, she did. Every submission attempt she set up was with active cheating. Do it. You should do it if you're not going to stop. She promised in the press conference, too. And that's why I got to admire you that opinion.

She also backed up what she said. Anthony Smith, Super did not. Cheat until someone tells you to stop cheating and then cheat a tiny bit more. A little bit of wiggle room. She didn't until they take a point from you and then stop cheating. You know, she was pretty far down in the car. They could probably take four or five points from her. She was like, all right, whatever.

Oh, it wouldn't matter it at that point yet. If you were in a situation where you need, Yeah. You're in a situation where you need a finish to win, cheap aggressively. Like, just all the cheating you can do because there is no downside at that point. And no one's going to stop you. Nobody. Is this the bite to make?

Yeah. Probably. 100%. It's not. Someone in the comments just said that Anthony broke his ankle live and now I'm just... Nice. That's too good. That's too good of a pun for one a amp.

Yeah. This isn't the fight to me. Ankelye of the light heavyweight division right now is very simple, right? You do the Glover, Yerry rematch because that was super fun. Everyone loved it. Glover's like done basically. Like you got to do this now for the guy. He deserves it.

And then you do Ankylai of Yon, number one contender on the same damn card. And we do one of those fun times where we get all these answers in one night. Like that's, that sounds fantastic. Yep. That's objectively true. But I want Ankaliev to. get his title shot. He's nine in a row.

Nobody wins the nine of a while. You just want that so you can beat me in the competition we have. I do, but also he's won nine in a row. You know who else has done that in the history of the light heavyweight division? John Jones, literally the only other person who has ever done that. Like,

let's do it get a title fight. He still got a little bit of stank on him from the Tiago Santos one, though. Like this didn't fully watch. Tango Stas sucks. Everyone who fights Tiago Sonto. We're going to find out in seven days that Tiago Santos is not, fun. He's the anathema to fun because Jamal Hill, who is fun,

is going to have a stinker with him because Tiago Santos sucks since he lost both of his knees, which is a very understandable reason to no longer be entertaining. Jed, Jed's on one. Energy drink Jed is a whole other. I'm just saying, Uncle

I have is the best two of five in the world, so I'd like him to have the belt because it'd be cooler. Why do you hate Glover? When the best guys. Well, Glover is certainly not the best two or five in the world. world as he just got submitted by your brashka you know it's you know it's just going to be the best when glover wins the rematch and they have to do a third one and then angloav's going to have to wait

so here for it the reaction go here for it's got to be absolutely amazing that that's the thing the only reason i'm not like actively really aggressively saying that this is bullshit and that uncle av deserves it is because glover yury i is i think the second best or maybe just actually the best fight of all time and i will and i love glover and eerie and we'll watch the hell out of that rematch if they do stupid yon fight over it that can kick locks like i don't if yon somehow jumps herey that uh glover that is just garbage and a half but if you're gonna do glover i at least accept that because that year year is too much fun man like i agree ankle i have is probably the best two o five in the world right now but like yri is the most fun t o five in the world and let's prolong this we can enjoy it a little

bit. It's not even close. Here he's the best the most fun by a lot. Yeah. You're used like Charles Lavera type of excitement at 205. Here he's like Charles and Gaichi combined. It's the weirdest thing. I love it. It's amazing.

We talked about this earlier, but I'm kind of short on question. So I'm going to go with this one. Do the scorecards tell the story of Amanda and Juliana? I thought Dana's reaction to that. was kind of interesting because a lot of us sort of feel the same. Like, Jed kind of put it, both in you two shot, but

it was the most compelling ass kicking we've ever watched where we were sort of on the edge of our seats even though we were very confident how the fight was going to go. Like I had my little brother texting me throughout the fight. He's like, I told you this is a lock and he goes, whoa, oh, oh, maybe not. Like just watching him react to it.

It was the best. It was the best. It was fantastic. What made it that way? Do you feel like the scorecards actually tell the story, though? I mean, in broads jokes, yeah. Ultimately, yeah. Yeah. Because it was, again, the most tense blowout I've ever seen, right?

Like, it was, it's still the word blowout is in that sentence, and it was a blowout. They don't in the fact that like, if you're just looking at scorecards to be like, ooh, should I watch that fight? You would never be like, oh, I should watch that fight. You'd be like, oh, that fight sucks. and that fight was actually compelling to watch in a lot of regards. But it is, it still was a blowout. I think the scorecards accurately reflect.

They accurately reflect the big picture, but not the, not the details, right? I will say to Casey, you had a great tweet about this. Yeah. That fight is a perfect illustration of why MMA stats are so terrible. Because if you look at the stats in round two, Julianna Pena actually outstruck Amanda and it's just like that is very obvious that by like 10 strikes too not like by like it's like 10 10 straights like like oh the person like oh the person with three knockdowns but that's literally if you're literally only looking at sig strike numbers then yes but also just in the striking thing

there's the three knockdowns which i think would tell anybody just looking at the numbers be like oh the person with three knockdowns won that round but that's that that's never like a general stat like we put all those into the round statute They always put those significant strikes. They never put knockdowns because we just never see three. It's just you assume the person of three knockdowns will have significantly more significant strikes. And it's just, that was just a weird one. I was just thinking on like on the stat, the UFC stats thing.

Like knockdowns is always immediately before six strikes. And it's like a. But I just in general. Yeah. That's a guideline. Even the whole 25 minutes, the striking numbers weren't that crazy as much as the ass kicking was there. the striking numbers were, it was relatively, not that far away, not that far, not that far apart what the actual fight was.

It was a very, I know, it's hard to explain it. It was a very, like, it was a compelling, competitive ass kicking. We don't have a lot of this, which is fun. The one thing I don't want to happen as we look back on this fight, like a couple of years from now, is that we forget about how good Amanda was tonight. Because I know a lot of people, like, and you heard it on the broadcast. I hate to keep bringing up the broadcast and the commentary,

but this is the Giuliana Pena is so tough show and Amanda was just not getting enough credit for the performance she was putting on. Annick was great. I thought Anik did a great job of like finding the happy medium,

but it just wasn't like that across the board. And I just want, like when we look back on this fight historically, this was Amanda putting up ridiculous numbers, getting a couple of 10-8s in this fight. And yes, we appreciate the toughness and the grit and the zombie-like nature of Juliana Pena,

but we have to appreciate the greatness and the offense and just her just rattling Juliana immediately. That, like, we have to remember that. Like, we love toughness. It's great. Juliana, her grit and determination, the way she could take punishment, her durability is amazing.

But Amanda was on fire tonight. She looked great. So let's just keep that in perspective. It's the old axiom. If we're talking about your durability and your toughness, In the post, you probably didn't do well. Yeah. No.

It's usually like the third round when Rogan starts talking about like how tough they are. How tough is that, oh, you know someone's getting their ass kick when they're talking about how tough. Oh, she got a Camara. Oh, she got a Camara. No. Yeah. Instead of talking about her toughness, we were talking about how she became Shiniaoki overnight. Manana knew goes off her back because that's a thing Julia Pena does.

So before we get out, this kind of flew into the radar. but Jay Petrie from Sherdog tweeted this earlier. Check this out. The fight description of Eeyer, Potteria. We at FightFinder can say this confidently. There was no such event from a set FC called Fight Against COVID-19. Never happened. All right.

We get another record pad game. We didn't fight against it with a set FC. Shame. These database guys, man. these database guys yeah they're awesome if this record padding gate story is not one of the top five best stories of the year on a website that does like top five stories of the year we're doing it wrong because this absolutely should be a one of the top five stories of the year New covers coming in, records changing, like, before their first. Like, the other, I forget, I can't believe it hurts my feelings that I can, they continue to, continuous forget the guy's name who had one fight in the UFC.

His record was like 27 and 5. And then when it was like 17 and 14 or something. And I think it actually decreased even more after he lost the UFC fight. It's wild. At my former employer, I did a big feature about like the history of MMA databases and sort of what these guys day to day is like. And the level of trickery and deception that these guys have to deal with on a daily basis, especially from various certain parts of the world, I'm not going to specifically point out anybody. But like, it is crazy. And they are way underappreciated.

And we rely on these resources so damn much, whether it's topology, shardog, whatever. like all of the work they do is so appreciated because they go through some shit, man. It is wild stuff. People trying to pull on them. They get threats from fighters. Like legit. Yeah, from threat. Yeah, it's wild.

But yeah, as one does. All right, gentlemen. I think we've covered this thing pretty well. AK and I'll be back in six hours and 57 minutes and we'll do some more for a matchmaking perspective. Some live, no action. So join us for that. Sean, Jed, Casey, thank you very much. Big shout to Jose.

Safe travels once again back to Phoenix. We are done. Hope you guys enjoyed UFC 277. It's a heck of an event for Sean, for Casey, for Jed. I am Mike Beck. Good night, everybody. We love you guys. Yeah, Sean, get on board.

Happy birthday, okay. It's not my birthday. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. You know,